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Mini Pamper Session

Mini Minx’s eczema flared up really badly yesterday – possibly in reaction to a brilliant day out at the swimming pool, possibly because it’s just one of those things. Anyway, she certainly didn’t react well to me approaching her with the big bottle of gloopy moisturiser and corticosteroid ointment!

As I slathered and winced at her squeals, she railed about how it was so unfair that she only got huge bottles of moisturiser while her friends were allowed to wear make-up at weekends and go to beauty salons with their mothers. I took a lot of this with a bucket-load of salt (her friends are only 6 and 7 years old), but it did give me an idea for a cunning plan to disguise my intensive Sort Out The Eczema Fast regime: give her a home spa morning.

Maxi and Midi were packed off to a nearby bouldering wall with their Dad to have some fun while Mini and I prepared my bedroom for her ‘Girly Morning’: Mini fetched her CD player and chose some of her favourite music from Maxi’s music collection (shhhhh, don’t tell Maxi!), while I set up a comfy massage area. I put a pillow on the end of the bed and covered that with a plastic bin liner (really important!), then 2 towels. I used another, soft towel as a cover, and had yet another on hand as a turban for Mini’s hair.

Even though I was prepared for a lot of mess, I tell you, it was apocalyptic. Mini is a delicate, gentle wee soul and I’m not heavy-handed with gunge but it still got absolutely everywhere. So if you’re going to do this with your child too, accept right now that you’re going to have to do an entire full machine washload of towels on ‘hot’ immediately afterwards. Do have a bin within reach and lots of paper towels / flannels / wipes to catch and dispose of all the goop.

The smile was a happy coincidence

First I got Mini to mix up her own hair mask. She has very coarse, dry, brittle hair so Professor Google advised whisking up the following:

1 egg yolk;

2 tablespoons of coconut oil;

1 tablespoon of honey.

She undressed, then I dampened her hair. I plastered the mask all over her hair then tried to massage it into her scalp. She didn’t like that, possibly because the mix was cold and possibly because the honey made it a bit sticky. Next time I’ll just use greasy coconut oil on its own! Or maybe plain old vegetable oil. The amount listed was just right to cover her head. I then wrapped her hair with the turban, laid her back on the bed, covered her up and instructed her to chill out while I made up her face mask.

Mini complains that her face often gets ‘crispy’ bits on it: little patches of eczema. So based on the fact that she spent most of her babyhood smeared in banana with no ill effects, I mushed up a ripe banana with a tablespoon of honey then gently smeared it all over her skin. It was far, far too much and most went to waste – she only needed maybe an inch or 2 of banana. Next time she can eat the rest! I added the slices of cucumber because even at the age of 7 Mini’s bought into the perception, heightened by media pictures, that you can’t have a proper face mask without cucumber slices on your eyes. So on they went.

As she lay back and relaxed for 5 minutes, humming along to her favourite tunes, I slathered her entire body in handfuls of Epaderm cream. I’m glad her face and hair masks smelled so sweet – they covered up the sour, utilitarian smell of the moisturiser! Mini sighed with pleasure as I massaged her little fingers and hands. The look of that blissed-out little face made the whole shebang absolutely worth every second.

I didn’t want to leave the face mask on her sensitive skin for longer than 5 minutes, so wiped it off gently with a hot flannel. I then shampooed and conditioned her hair over the bath as normal. She snuggled in her favourite dressing gown while I tidied up, gasping in horror at the mess on the towels. The banana splashed *everywhere*, the egg yolk stained the turban, and the coconut oil soaked through 3 towel layers to the plastic bin liner – see? I said it was important! Mini helped tidy up by eating the cucumber slices. WeeeeeelI, why not? They’d only touched food-stuffs and her eyelids! Maybe she’d listened when I’d skeptically said that the masks would probably do her more good being eaten than plastered over the outside.

I blow-dried her hair, then helped her choose and paint on some finger- and toe-nail varnish, which is a special treat only allowed in the long school holidays.

Even an old cynic like me can see that the masks had an effect on Mini’s skin and hair, though. I think they’ll have to become a monthly Thing.

Oh my word! Mini looks even more amazing than usual Just wondering – do you use Epaderm Cream or ointment? My wee one is allergic to any kind of cream so we stick to the ointment. Might that help Mini? We also put porridge oats in her bath instead of anything else. Also messy but she loves it and it leaves her skin lovely and moisturised. I’m def going to try the spa regime asap – it looks fab!

She mostly uses the cream, in a big pump dispenser. I’ve tried the ointment in the past, but the squeals and wails and moans about how slimy it felt were unbearable. I hear that the ointment works faster, but have stuck with the cream because at least I’ve a fighting chance of actually getting that on her skin!

Actually, the thing that helped the most was our brilliant pharmacist’s wily ways. He gave her a little goodie bag of 4 or 5 different tiny sizes of moisturiser in a variety of tubes and pumps and told her to try them all, then tell him what worked best and he’d give her a big bottle of it. His rationale was that even if she hated them all, at least in the meantime she was getting covered in moisturiser, which was the important thing that week – very clever! She came across the Epaderm then.

PS I was thinking of you today as we all got slathered in Ultrasun Family sunscreen before we went out foraging for raspberries. Every time I use it I think of you – it was your recommendation that swung it for me. You were right, it doesn’t bother anyone’s eczema and actually makes it a bit better. I love the stuff! Thank you again!